After mine & Jean's recent trip to Laos we constructed a table comparing & contrasting Cambodia with its northerly neighbour.
Laos
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Cambodia
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Food
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Great bread &
pastries – thank heavens for French food imperialism, which seems to have
stuck here more than Cambodia, Sticky rice.
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A lot of cross over
between Laos & Cambodian food. Both sandwiched between Vietnam &
Thailand so rice & soup with a spicy/Chinese influence.
|
People
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Very laid back &
relaxed. Not much hassling, lots of laughter.
|
I think Cambodians
are smiley-er & friendlier but Jean would say that I am bias & it
helps I can try to communicate (not always successfully) in Khmer.
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Transport/
roads
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A lot more diversity
of the makes of cars. Bus trip from Vang Vieng to Luang Prabang more diverse
in pitch, roll & yaw – Jean’s worse bus journey of her life.
Thai imported food
at road stops with fridges that have magnums.
There appears to be
more order on the roads & rules that are followed. Less beeping of horns,
less tarmac = bumpier roads.
|
Better roads,
straighter with significantly less pitch, roll & yaw than Laos. There are
distinct advantages to living in the Mekong basin – no mountains.
Capitol bus company
is the best.
Great snacks at bus
stops – crickets, spiders, fertilised ducks eggs – clearly superior snacks to
magnums & Lays crisps.
|
Agriculture
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Much greener, more
trees, more slash & burn farming. Less rice more variety of other crops.
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Rice, rice, rice.
Rubber, Cassava cash crops. Very few trees.
|
Shopping
|
Great textiles – wider
variety. Good crafts. The night market in Luang Prabang was the calmest place
I have ever been to. The occasional “Sa Bai Dee” & rarely “You like, you
look” but a total absence of hard sale. A delight – Jean left with a huge
blanket, so much for travelling light with a 38-litre rucksack!
|
Great clothes –
imported & made. Great shoes – beautiful but not always comfortable.
Markets – hot, hard sale, hassle.
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Environment
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Quieter, they have functioning
pavements. Cleaner – less plastic.
|
More of – dust, Wat
noise pollution, traffic, Karaoke, dogs, chickens, chaos.
|
$$$
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More expensive but
we were on the tourist route.
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Cheap – I live on
£10/day.
|
Sex tourism
|
That is depressingly
the same all over South East Asia.
|
|
New Year
Celebrations
|
Wet & joyous
|
Wet & dangerous
|
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| Pineapple swans - part of an 'interesting' curry chicken & pineapple salad - disingenuously Thailand not Laos |
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| Not just Cambodia that could do with rationalizing its electricity wires |
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| Laos new year - joyous, noisy & wet |
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| Jean rejecting Beer Laos for a glass of wine |
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| New Year water party - not sure what the bloke sat on the far right of the water tanker needs an assault rifle for! |
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| Jean after a Laos guy - at least a foot shorter than her - picked her up & put her in a paddling pool. |
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| Wires! |
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| Product placement meets buddhism |
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| Vang Vieng |
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| Boat Trip - drier & quicker than tubing |
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| The quiet end of Vang Vieng |
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| The lovely Luang Prabang |
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| The man with his tripod & self timer than followed us around Laos |
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| Frangipani shadow |
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| The mighty Mekong |
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| Another Mekong sunset |
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| Smiling fools |
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| Beers - completely lived up to all my expectations of what a bear should be |
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| Love this waterfall |
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| This place was idyllic & what you can't see in this photo is that it was actually heaving with people |
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| Very precarious bamboo bridge |
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